Fieldwork update from this weekend
May. 1st, 2019 09:49 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
unicorndukeSo I didn't do a ton this past weekend down at my field.
Most stuff was juuuust emerging, or out of the ground but very small. I had marked the rows well, with the seeder or when I hand planted, I stepped onto the dirt to get good seed-to-soil contact and it left a decent mark. So I was able to weed stuff without hitting germinating plants that I might not be able to see.
Mostly it was weeding, I used the coleman style hoe, which is a flat small blade, six by one inch and sharp. You use it by working shallow and slicing weeds just under the surface. It's nice because it's a very upright use hoe, so I could stand completely straight and keep my back from getting sore, which is usually why I stop hoeing. I think I weeded about five hours total the first day, which was two full rows of peas and a row of carrots, plus the 12 foot wide strip of oats (12-15 rows maybe? I haven't counted). The hardest part was not killing plants as the hoe bounced off rocks. It's not good in the rocky section but I could turn it and use the inch side for precision work. I really love the hoe because it is super precise. I can do in row weeding as long as I'm careful and it doesn't do a ton of soil disturbance so I can work really close to the plant row, like within an inch. The only issue is that I got blisters on my hands but that's nothing new.
I did have good emergence overall, with most stuff coming up. There was one pea variety that didn't do well (might have been older seed) and the garbanzos were going a bit slower than the rest.
The lentils were super happy.
The oats are also looking good. This picture is pre-weeding so it doesn't look super great lol.
The flax looks good in both the main plantings and the variety trial area. I had pretty good germination on all the plots and they all got a quick weeding. The main plantings didn't get weeded and I'm hoping the density of plants helps with that but who knows. The flax is the two leaf plants in the cotyledon stage.
My garlic and small grains that survived the winter are doing pretty well, growing on schedule and the small grains are putting lots and lots of tillers out. Each tiller will form a head. One of the decisions I made on barley is that I will be growing it as a spring grain. It doesn't really survive the winter up here and I experimented with it a bit. This is a big thing because I got 100 grams of Oregon Naked Barley Blend from the Oregon Barley Project. Naked barley will thresh out without a hull, which is one less processing step. This blend has spring, winter and faculative barleys, various colors and sizes and all generally food or malting quality so that a grower can select out populations and then grow them into their own variety. I'll be harvesting en mass this year since I planted it out two weeks ago.
Garlic
Winter small grains (this is one of the crappier looking ones)
I apparently didn't take a picture of the barley, but it's growing well.
I didn't plant any more potatoes but I did re-hill them because it was 25 degrees Sunday night, which they probably can survive. Who knows. I'll find out eventually. I'm going to re-rototill the rest of that area and then plant more next time I go down. I think I'm going to buy hilling disks because I'm not into hoeing to hill. I did 90 feet on Sunday and it's hard!
One thing I did determine is that I need to rototill in my rye-vetch cover crop two weeks before planting and then give it another rototill. Last time, I rototilled one section at the far end that is going to be PYO peas for the strawberry pickers and just threw in the peas.
Here's what it looks like now:
The peas are emerging fine but the rye is regrowing. So for my summer sections, I need to rototill the plots next time I go down and then once more the weekend I plant, which I think will be the 25/26.
I also fired up the cultivating tractor which is this rad thing.
It's a cultivating tractor because the engine is offset to one side so the drivers seat can be directly above the crops with nothing in the way. This makes steering the tractor over the crop extremely easy. One of the hardest things about cultivating is that the cultivators on the back of a tractor can and do swing slightly depending on how you turn your wheels even the slightest. It makes for a very sore neck and back, checking back and forth constantly and adjusting based on the slight swings the planter made because it's also on the back of the tractor and no one can afford GPS on the tractors. Unless we want to be like that one dude who built an arduino project to autosteer his combine lol. I've cultivated a lot of pumpkin plants in my time and killed a lot too. I laid out my field so I can use this tractor to cultivate my plants and it will be very helpful once the corn goes in. I am not hoeing 2000 square feet of corn by hand. Unfortunately, it rained a lot this past weekend so I wasn't able to use it, but I'm looking forward to working with it.
And it was wet all weekend. We hardly did any work after Friday. I think I removed goat fencing for about two hours saturday and weeded the last two rows of peas/garbanzos/lentils on sunday. The goat fencing is woven wire and I'll be using it to fence in my garden so I can let my dog wander around in there with me instead of having to stay in the house while I work.
Here are two videos I took:
This video is me walking along the east end of my field on sunday after I had done all the weeding and it was raining (again). It starts with the flax (not super visible), then the oat rows, then the mixed flax variety plots and you can see the spring barley in sections, then winter small grains, then garlic, then row of peas (green and up), then a row of carrots and a row of peas (neither visible in the video), then the hilled potatoes, a row of nothing and then two weeded rows, one peas and one mixed garbanzos/lentils.
This video is from the drone flying low over the field. Most of the green is weeds except in the center section near the garlic, which is small grains. Not a ton is visible in this video but it's cool. I've got more drone pictures to post, but they aren't on this computer. I'll make a separate post with those I think.
I got back to NY monday midday and found out that my seeds have sprouted well in the new trays. Also I grew a bunch of mushrooms. I got lazy and used potting soil to start, which has tiny bits of wood. I had closed the window and gave them one last watering before I left and so I got some mushrooms.
Overall, not a terrible weekend for farm stuff.
Most stuff was juuuust emerging, or out of the ground but very small. I had marked the rows well, with the seeder or when I hand planted, I stepped onto the dirt to get good seed-to-soil contact and it left a decent mark. So I was able to weed stuff without hitting germinating plants that I might not be able to see.
Mostly it was weeding, I used the coleman style hoe, which is a flat small blade, six by one inch and sharp. You use it by working shallow and slicing weeds just under the surface. It's nice because it's a very upright use hoe, so I could stand completely straight and keep my back from getting sore, which is usually why I stop hoeing. I think I weeded about five hours total the first day, which was two full rows of peas and a row of carrots, plus the 12 foot wide strip of oats (12-15 rows maybe? I haven't counted). The hardest part was not killing plants as the hoe bounced off rocks. It's not good in the rocky section but I could turn it and use the inch side for precision work. I really love the hoe because it is super precise. I can do in row weeding as long as I'm careful and it doesn't do a ton of soil disturbance so I can work really close to the plant row, like within an inch. The only issue is that I got blisters on my hands but that's nothing new.
I did have good emergence overall, with most stuff coming up. There was one pea variety that didn't do well (might have been older seed) and the garbanzos were going a bit slower than the rest.
The lentils were super happy.
The oats are also looking good. This picture is pre-weeding so it doesn't look super great lol.
The flax looks good in both the main plantings and the variety trial area. I had pretty good germination on all the plots and they all got a quick weeding. The main plantings didn't get weeded and I'm hoping the density of plants helps with that but who knows. The flax is the two leaf plants in the cotyledon stage.
My garlic and small grains that survived the winter are doing pretty well, growing on schedule and the small grains are putting lots and lots of tillers out. Each tiller will form a head. One of the decisions I made on barley is that I will be growing it as a spring grain. It doesn't really survive the winter up here and I experimented with it a bit. This is a big thing because I got 100 grams of Oregon Naked Barley Blend from the Oregon Barley Project. Naked barley will thresh out without a hull, which is one less processing step. This blend has spring, winter and faculative barleys, various colors and sizes and all generally food or malting quality so that a grower can select out populations and then grow them into their own variety. I'll be harvesting en mass this year since I planted it out two weeks ago.
Garlic
Winter small grains (this is one of the crappier looking ones)
I apparently didn't take a picture of the barley, but it's growing well.
I didn't plant any more potatoes but I did re-hill them because it was 25 degrees Sunday night, which they probably can survive. Who knows. I'll find out eventually. I'm going to re-rototill the rest of that area and then plant more next time I go down. I think I'm going to buy hilling disks because I'm not into hoeing to hill. I did 90 feet on Sunday and it's hard!
One thing I did determine is that I need to rototill in my rye-vetch cover crop two weeks before planting and then give it another rototill. Last time, I rototilled one section at the far end that is going to be PYO peas for the strawberry pickers and just threw in the peas.
Here's what it looks like now:
The peas are emerging fine but the rye is regrowing. So for my summer sections, I need to rototill the plots next time I go down and then once more the weekend I plant, which I think will be the 25/26.
I also fired up the cultivating tractor which is this rad thing.
It's a cultivating tractor because the engine is offset to one side so the drivers seat can be directly above the crops with nothing in the way. This makes steering the tractor over the crop extremely easy. One of the hardest things about cultivating is that the cultivators on the back of a tractor can and do swing slightly depending on how you turn your wheels even the slightest. It makes for a very sore neck and back, checking back and forth constantly and adjusting based on the slight swings the planter made because it's also on the back of the tractor and no one can afford GPS on the tractors. Unless we want to be like that one dude who built an arduino project to autosteer his combine lol. I've cultivated a lot of pumpkin plants in my time and killed a lot too. I laid out my field so I can use this tractor to cultivate my plants and it will be very helpful once the corn goes in. I am not hoeing 2000 square feet of corn by hand. Unfortunately, it rained a lot this past weekend so I wasn't able to use it, but I'm looking forward to working with it.
And it was wet all weekend. We hardly did any work after Friday. I think I removed goat fencing for about two hours saturday and weeded the last two rows of peas/garbanzos/lentils on sunday. The goat fencing is woven wire and I'll be using it to fence in my garden so I can let my dog wander around in there with me instead of having to stay in the house while I work.
Here are two videos I took:
This video is me walking along the east end of my field on sunday after I had done all the weeding and it was raining (again). It starts with the flax (not super visible), then the oat rows, then the mixed flax variety plots and you can see the spring barley in sections, then winter small grains, then garlic, then row of peas (green and up), then a row of carrots and a row of peas (neither visible in the video), then the hilled potatoes, a row of nothing and then two weeded rows, one peas and one mixed garbanzos/lentils.
This video is from the drone flying low over the field. Most of the green is weeds except in the center section near the garlic, which is small grains. Not a ton is visible in this video but it's cool. I've got more drone pictures to post, but they aren't on this computer. I'll make a separate post with those I think.
I got back to NY monday midday and found out that my seeds have sprouted well in the new trays. Also I grew a bunch of mushrooms. I got lazy and used potting soil to start, which has tiny bits of wood. I had closed the window and gave them one last watering before I left and so I got some mushrooms.
Overall, not a terrible weekend for farm stuff.
no subject
Date: 2019-05-01 03:58 pm (UTC)Busy weekend, and may things continue to go at least that well!
no subject
Date: 2019-05-01 07:26 pm (UTC)I am charmed by the mushrooms, lol
no subject
Date: 2019-05-01 07:40 pm (UTC)I was SO AMUSED by the mushrooms! Of course they would grow! I gave them water and heat and no air movement! Doing their best :P